In the coming months, the city of about 36,000 will have to make even more decisions about what its downtown core is and isn’t.
A year ago, city officials agreed to “fast-track changes to the Land Development Code that would permit restaurants and taverns to keep outdoor dining initiated during the pandemic,” according to TBN.
Like other municipalities, Dunedin relaxed rules on outdoor dining to give restaurants a chance at staying open while the world worked on a COVID-19 vaccine that could make it safer to gather indoors. That meant more businesses taking advantage of their outdoor areas, in spite of a nearly-12-year-old outdoor dining ordinance that places restrictions on restaurants that wished to obtain a permit to serve food and drink outside.
In part, Dunedin’s 2011 outdoor dining ordinance requires permit holders to have a maximum of 24 outdoor seats or 25% of the business’ licensed capacity—whichever is less. The ordinance also includes a curfew-like requirement forcing patrons to vacate the outdoor area by 11 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, and before midnight on Friday-Saturday.
A caveat of the 2011 ordinance said that any outdoor business that existed prior to its passage would “be considered a grandfathered nonconforming use.” In most city codes, regulations allow grandfathered uses to continue and to expand on site until they are removed by economic or other forces.
As the City of Dunedin tries to rein in and update its outdoor dining ordinance, Michael Lyn Bryant worries that changes might affect his businesses ability to contribute to his hometown’s downtown culture.
“The city came to us and tried to get us to bring in our outdoor seating. We said, ‘No, that that’s not the case. We were grandfathered.’ We gave them the sheet that explains the ordinance highlighting that part,” Bryant, 40, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “They came back and actually fought us on our grandfather nature to the point that I was like, ‘They really just called my father a liar.’”
Bryant is general manager at Dunedin Brewery, which his dad Michael Norman Bryant founded in 1995. Michael Lyn went to Washington state for college, and lived in St. Augustine for a year after that, but grew up a kilt-wearing Dunedin kid who played bagpipes in middle school and traveled to the world championships with the City of Dunedin Pipe Band. Some people have worked at the brewery longer than he has; Michael Lyn stays in town because Dunedin is where those relationships—his family, biological and otherwise—are.
Live music has been a staple of the Dunedin Brewery existence since day one when Michael Norman booked guitarist and songwriter Sean DeLong. Over the last 13 years, Michael Lyn has turned the brewery’s concert calendar into a gem of Tampa Bay’s music scene that’s not only provided a stage for locals, but watched big names from jam and jazz scenes route through in between sets at bigger festivals around the state. Besides special events, every show at the brewery happens indoors and is always free. Every year, Dunedin’s World Ukulele Day celebration features a giant ukulele jam session in the brewery’s courtyard. Michael Lyn’s latest venture next door, The Moon Tower, recently welcomed Wu-Tang Clan’s GZA for a set and rounds of speed chess with locals. The brewery has become something of a destination for touring acts attracted to the venue’s hospitality (the food and beer are killer) and Dunedin’s easygoing vibe.
Michael Lyn has already started his entertainment earlier to play nice with a confusing sound ordinance that measures decibel levels differently after 11 p.m. And while some of his managers have been issued citations around the sound ordinance—all while the brewery continues fielding complaints from a single resident in nearby apartments—Dunedin Brewery is finally getting to the point where law enforcement stops by, understands the business is not violating the sound ordinance, and moves along. What’s more is that most of the renters across Douglass Avenue come out to their patios to hear music when Dunedin Brewery brings music outside in the daytime for special events like Oktoberfest.
“Culture is our de facto business. Music is free here, it’s for the community. I want to expose as many people as possible to what I find to be relevant, interesting, and worthwhile art from across the country,” he said. “And I want to expose Dunedin, and all it has to offer, to these musicians.”“Older stakeholders feel like we’re being pinched out in favor of a new culture.”
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There’s a stay on enforcement of the old outdoor ordinance, which means Dunedin Brewery will have to wait to see what its future holds, but Michael Lyn may have some time before any changes happen.
In an email to CL, Dunedin Mayor Julie Ward Bujalski wrote, “At this point, we do not have any changes to discuss. We are working with the downtown task force quarterly but we do not have any changes confirmed at this point.”
That task force recently changed into Dunedin’s new Business Resident City Council (BRCC), but Michael Lyn said the BRCC could do better in fostering communication between residents and local businesses.
A representative for the city also told CL that Dunedin is working on a brand refresh which features the downtown core—including live music—as a brand pillar. Still, Michael Lyn worries about long-term consequences of a revamped outdoor dining ordinance.
“Changes could really affect numerous people in town, especially the older stakeholders that feel like we’re being pinched out in favor of a new culture,” he said. Michael Lyn stopped short of calling it a culture of quiet, but did say that there is an element of the city wanting to perhaps party in the day and go to bed early. “The new ordinance really could hurt businesses if the language included a curfew.”
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